Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Personality of the Month
for June 2005

Hanover Shoe Farms

Hanover Shoe Farms has been--for nearly the entire part of the 20th Century--one of the largest and most successful Standardbred horse breeding farms and nurserys in North America.

Hanover Shoe is located in Adams County, on Route 194 between Hanover and Littlestown, Pennsylvania--known to all as the Keystone State.

StarsPride

Hanover Shoe Farms got its roots when Harper D. Sheppard and Clinton N. Myers took over a fledging shoe-making business in Hanover and re-christened it as Hanover Shoe in 1899. Two years later, Sheppard and Myers opened a small retail shoe shop in downtown York, PA.

The Panderosa
Just one of the stallions currently standing at Hanover Shoe Farms

Cantab Hall
One of Hanover Shoe Farms
current Trotting Stallions

The store was open throughout the week and Saturdays until noon, as was their manufacturing plant. The two would race back and forth between the two villages on horseback and in their carriages. They soon discovered that some of their horses could travel the distances faster than others, and began to develop a stable of horses that they coudl race at the local fairs and nearby racetracks.

Harper Sheppard soon got his son Lawrence B. Sheppard invovled with the horses. Lawrence is credited with having great business sense, and in the mid-twenties, convinced two outside parties to invest in top stock for his father's stable. In 1926 Lawrence purchased an entire Standardbred herd of some 69 of North America's best broodmares and stallions at the time from elite breeder A.B. Coxe for $150,000. To this date many of the Hanover bloodlines directly trace back to stock from the Coxe estate. Dillion Axworthy was one of the stallions included in the purchase, as was Miss Bertha Dillion--the mare often referred to as the founder of "The Royal Family of Hanover Shoe."

Over the years Hanover Shoe Farms expanded its operation which necessitated the purchasing of nearby farms and acreage to accommodate more horses, expanding to a hefty 3,500 acres.
Their stallion roster and stakes winners have included some of harness racing's best, including Billy Direct, Bullet Hanover, Blaze Hanover, Diller Hanover, Laverne Hanover, Delmonica Hanover, Ayres, Romeo Hanover, Columbia George, Steady Star, Best Of All, and many more.

Perhaps two of the best of modern Hanover stallions that had a great influence on the sport today were Super Bowl and Albatross. Their early crops were especially sensational and put them at the top of every breeding category of modern times. More than half of Albatross' initial crop of 84 cracked 2:05. Twenty-five per cent paced in two minutes or better, and one, B.G.'s Bunny, lowered the world record for sophomores to 1:54. That success propelled colt buyers into paying an average of $32,673 for 26 sons and daughters of Super Bowl at the Harrisburg sale in 1977, while 45 offspring of Albatross averaged a staggering $41,767!

Warm Breeze became a member of the Hanover Shoe stallion roster in 1977, joining the outstanding lineup of Tar Heel, Star's Pride, Albatross, Super Bowl, Ayres, Best Of All, Bullet Hanover, Columbia George, Steady Star, Hickory Smoke and Speedy Count.

In 2005 Hanover Shoe Farm's stallion roster is made up of one of the most talented group of trotters and pacers found anywhere in North America. The list includes: Allamerican Native, Andover Hall, Arturo, Cam's Card Shark, Cantab Hall, Donerail, Dragon's Again, SJ's Caviar, The Panderosa, Western Hanover, and Western Ideal.

Today Hanover Shoe Farms employees nearly 100 full-time equine professionals, has a
conglomerate of 27 farms spread out over 3,500 acres, with over 1,200 horses at the peak season, 40 barns, and 35 houses and apartments.